n one of the boats. Look; they've got in the lines."

Steve looked down, and saw that the men were carefully stowing two tubs
in the fore part of the boats, each tub containing, in carefully
laid-down rings, about a hundred and fifty yards of strong line.

"But surely they're not going to harpoon those baby whales like they do
the big ones?"

"Yes, just the same, lad. Come down if you want to have some of the
sport."

The captain stepped into one boat, and Steve followed, the doctor going
off in the other with Jakobsen and the crew.

The next minute the word was given to sit fast and be silent, and the
boats were rowed rapidly toward the great shoal, which must have
numbered a thousand or fifteen hundred, while the water was one mass of
foam.

"Are these good, these white whales?" said Steve to the captain, as the
boat cut through the water, and Johannes stood ready with his harpoon, a
very different implement from that provided for the walrus, being barbed
so as to form a kind of hook, and, once through, could not be withdrawn
from the gutta-percha-like side, of which it would take up a loop tough
enough to hold the stoutest sea-horse they could strike. The harpoon
used for the white whale was lighter, and had a head which somewhat
resembled a half-moon, fitted to work at the end of the shaft, and
slight, so that one point of the half-moon would stand in a line with
the pole, while the other was secured by a band to the shaft. When the
harpoon was driven into the whale, the band which held the second point
of the head down to the pole was pushed off in passing through the skin
and flesh, while at the first tug upon the line attached to the harpoon
the loose head would be drawn crosswise, forming instead of a spear a
double barb, which was strong enough to hold in the flesh without being
drawn out.

The captain was too intent upon the shoal to answer Steve's question,
which he repeated.

"Good, my lad? Yes. The oil is the purest and best to be had, and very
valuable; but of course not to be obtained in such quantities as are
procured from the larger whales. I hope we shall get three or four,
though. They will help to fill up our tanks."

"I wish he'd think more of finding the _Ice Blink_ than of filling the
tanks," thought Steve; but the next moment he, too, was thinking of
nothing but the shoal of fish, as the men called them, though they were
air-breathing animals instead; for now the chase became e